


That Kind of Dancing (Another Mystery)

by icepixie



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Dancing, Friendship, Gen, Historical, Multi-Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-16
Updated: 2006-07-16
Packaged: 2017-10-03 12:05:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icepixie/pseuds/icepixie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How did the Doctor learn to dance, then? There is absolutely no innuendo in this summary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Kind of Dancing (Another Mystery)

The morning after they'd saved the world once again, Rose and the Doctor were eating breakfast together. Jack had yet to emerge from the room he had sleepily claimed for himself the previous night. Rose, out of the blue, asked, "Where did you learn how to dance?"

The Doctor choked on his tea.

"What?"

"Someone on Earth must have taught you. Unless aliens have swing clubs too?" Rose's grin was cheeky, and sticky with jam.

"Ah." The Doctor's minute sigh of relief did not go unnoticed by his companion.

~ ~ ~

Singapore was ringing in 1931 with as much noise as it could. Lanterns and fireworks lit up the night, and the people crowding the streets and narrow alleys around them were all caught up in the excitement and cheer of the celebration. Just after midnight, the Doctor and Charley had come upon a large, open square where, rather incongruously, a small orchestra was playing loud, catchy jazz tunes. Couples were dancing all over the cobbled ground, performing the quick, energetic steps of the day. Out in the center, some of them were doing the acrobatic moves which had become popular in the past few years.

Charley, who loved to dance, offered the Doctor her hand. "Come on, Doctor," she said. "You've probably seen steps that haven't even been invented yet."

The Doctor shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry, Charley, but I'm afraid I don't know how. I've never had the chance to learn this style of dance, although I'm rather accomplished at Gallifreyan social dancing."

"You would be." Charley rolled her eyes. "Let's at least watch for a moment, then."

They found a free spot against a wall of a building which bordered the square. The heat that the dusty bricks had absorbed during the day easily made its way through the thin material of Charley's dress, making a delicious contrast to the cooler air of the night.

Within seconds, her hands had picked up the beat of the current song, and she was tapping her fingertips against the wall. Pressed side-to-side was they were by the crowd, the Doctor could feel the movement of her arm against his own, and grinned at the enthusiasm of his young friend.

Before the band was too far into the next number, a young man with a London accent asked Charley to dance.

She looked at the Doctor almost as if she were asking permission; with a shrug, he indicated that his thoughts on the matter should have no bearing on her decision. Charley took the man's hand and skipped out into the crowd.

He tried to keep an eye on her, but it was hopeless; she and her partner were soon lost in the colorful swirl of bodies. Knowing that his companion would find her way back to him eventually, the Doctor turned his attention to the string of paper lanterns above his head, wondering if something similar would look nice in the control room...

* * *

"That was great fun, Doctor!" Charley said as they stumbled back into the TARDIS nearly an hour later. The party outside wouldn't begin to wind down until it neared daybreak, but it would do so without the presence of their tired selves.

"It was, wasn't it?" The Doctor had been humming one of the swing songs the band had played as they walked back to the time machine, and continued to do so as he made his way to the console and set the coordinates for a nice, quiet spot in the vortex.

Charley was swaying to a beat only she could hear, occasionally twirling or doing a little kick or skip, repeating parts of the steps she'd done earlier.

"I saw you doing some rather impressive tricks out there on that impromptu dance floor," the Doctor said, getting her attention. "Given when you come from, I'm a little surprised you knew how. Where does a nice young lady such as yourself learn these things?"

"Oh, please," Charley scoffed. "Everyone was wild about it at school. We would practice at home whenever Mama was out." Her lips took on the slightest hint of a pout. "I was the tallest, and my sisters always made me dance the man's part." She looked askance at him, suddenly almost shy. "I could teach you."

"All right," he said immediately. "Show me what to do."

Charley looked surprised for just a moment before a grin broke out on her face. "Wonderful!" She situated herself so that she was standing beside him, slightly forward, so that he could easily see her feet and copy their movements. "First you sort of rock back on your left foot, like so." She demonstrated, and the Doctor followed. "Then you put your weight back on the right foot and step forward, turning towards the right..."

* * *

In no time at all, it seemed, he had all the basic steps down, and they were nearing the end of her knowledge of the lead's part. The quickness with which her friend learned astonished her. Until then, it had always been him teaching her, guiding her, showing her the universe. Being the one instructing him--that was novel. She liked it.

"Are you ready to try it with me now?"

He held out his hand. She took it, responding to the slight tug that pulled her closer so that the Doctor could put his free hand on her back and she could rest hers on his shoulder.

"Like this," she said, pulling their joined hands down from the mid-air position he'd struck. "We're not waltzing, you know."

"Ah, the waltz," the Doctor said expansively, and Charley saw the look she'd come to dread, the one that said he'd sailed off on a sea of reminiscence and was about to drag her onboard the boat. "Did I ever tell you that I was in Vienna when the first--"

With the hand that had been on his shoulder, she reached out to twist a knob on the console which she thought controlled the volume of the swing music that was playing lightly in the background. She was gratified when it worked. "Come on, Doctor. Let's see how well you learned."

He launched himself into the music, pulling her along with him. They danced around the console room, ending up first on one side, then the other as the steps she'd taught him carried them in between the iron pillars and around the furniture scattered here and there.

"Charley," he said once she'd got back round to facing him after a fairly complicated figure. "Am I correct in thinking that one of the best things about this form of dancing is that I can do--this?"

Charley wasn't exactly sure what happened next, but she felt her feet leave the floor rather suddenly, and had just enough time and awareness to tuck her elbows in toward her body before she landed in the Doctor's arms and he set her back on the ground.

"Yes, you're perfectly correct," she answered him, breathless. He led her back into the basic step on exactly the right count. "Are you sure you've never done this before?"

"I'm a quick study." He gave her a cheeky grin before spinning her under his arm.

"Of course," Charley replied dryly. She spun back to face him. "How could I have forgotten?"

They danced through two more songs before agreeing to stop. "You'll be wanting to rest," the Doctor suggested.

"I couldn't sleep yet," Charley said. The excitement and adrenaline from the dancing and celebration would be with her for a while yet.

"Would you like a cup of tea, then?"

"Oooh, that sounds lovely."

The Doctor flipped a few switches at the console and then they headed for the kitchen. Charley laid a hand on his arm. "Doctor, thank you for tonight. I really did have a wonderful time."

He smiled at her, the crinkles at the corners of his eyes deepening. "Thank *you* for teaching me a new dance. I'll remember it always."

As she'd realized today, for her alien friend, "always" was quite a while longer than for most other people. Really, it was quite an honor, she thought, grinning back up at him as they disappeared into the kitchen for their tea.

~ ~ ~

"Well?" Rose prompted after several seconds. "Where'd you learn it?"

The Doctor's gaze returned from the far away and long ago to focus on his companion once more. "Someone from Earth did teach me. A lifetime ago." Collecting himself, he handed her the jam pot. "More toast?"

Rose accepted the condiment and took a piece of toast from the diminishing pile in the center of the table. She knew she wouldn't be getting any more information out of her cryptic and secretive friend, at least not this morning.

Ah, well. That was all right. As long as they kept making it through their adventures by the skins of their teeth, she'd find other times to examine his many mysteries.

**Author's Note:**

> While I studied the (former) British Empire for a while during undergrad, Singapore in the 1930s was not exactly given extensive coverage. Similarly, while I'm not bad at East Coast Swing, my knowledge of Lindy Hop (which is what Charley supposedly teaches the Doctor) is limited to exactly three steps, one of which a friend and I made up on our own. So if you've got extensive experience with either of those, I do apologize and hope your disbelief hasn't been injured from having to be suspended for a while. ;)
> 
> "Another Mystery" is a song by Dar Williams. You can do East Coast Swing to it. I stole it for part of my title because of that and because, well, my title's a bit lame. Still is, really. Ah, well.


End file.
